


The Un Birthday Birthday

by 29PheonixLement



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alice in Wonderland published date, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-02 13:37:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16787995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/29PheonixLement/pseuds/29PheonixLement





	1. Chapter 1

Margot’s eyes kept flickering to the clock then the door and back again. “What’s going on with you monkey?” Zelena questioned wincing at the nickname for her still cursed daughter. Thankfully Margot who was still cleaning the same glass for the last five minutes didn’t seem to hear the slip. “Fine mom.” She says absently her look turning hopeful when the door opened but fell quickly at the random man that came in.

“Hey, little fox.”

Zelena smiled at her daughter’s eye roll at the nickname very much like she would back home when she still had all her memories. “Phone call.” Regina says as if it wasn’t obvious shaking her head in honest confusion at her sister questioning look as she handed the phone to their distracted bartender.

“Hell…Oh hey, Rogers is Til….She what?” Her words were said in such rapid succession that the listening pair had trouble keeping up with the short one-sided conversation, but both were prepared to kick everyone out of the bar at the fear passing over Margot’s face as she listened to whatever Rogers was telling her toward the end.

“Can I…” she started to say only to breakout a shy smile seconds later. “What the heck were you thinking baby?” Margot greeted the worried anger in her voice making the other two recoil neither liking any of the possibilities of what could have happened regarding the blonde’s safety playing out in their minds even without the added threat of easily accessible magic looming over the town as they would have in Storybrooke.

“Alright alright. I’m sorry I snapped but come on today of all days you had to go and get hurt?” She sighed holding the bridge of her nose between her fingers as she stared unseeing out the front window at the snow-dusted scene outside. “True but I wasn’t the one that thought chasing down someone in the middle of a Hyptown snowfall was a good idea.” The green eyed blonde sighed blinking away the dazed look in her eyes. That perked their interest. Thankfully for her, the front door opened just then ushering in a new stream of shivering thirsty customers giving enough of a distraction that Margot was able to slip away to the safety of the backroom.

The sisters had managed to contain the new wave of customers communicating in glances and shrugged shoulders mostly while they worked both eyeing the door to the back room every chance they got while taking and filling orders.

“Yes, and that’s another reason why I like you so much.” Margot chuckled coming back out again now holding her cell phone between her ear and her shoulder as she pulled on her jacket with the strap of a familiar backpack now slung over her back pausing just long enough to set the bar phone down beside the registers as she moved back behind the bar to grab the book she always kept close even when she was working. “I’ll see you soon il mio amore.”

Zelena’s head tilited at the Italian phrase. It took her a minute to search Kelly’s hazy curse created memories to translate it as Margot pulles the zipper of the backpack closed after tucking Alice away beside Tilly’s Robin Hood book. “I know and that makes it all the more fun....” Margot giggled tucking a stray lock of her own hair back behind her ear her grin turning into a pout as her daughter stopped beside the table Zelena was cleaning off mostly to be polite to the new customers coming in when she wanted to go out. “Oh come on that spoils the game if you just look it up.”

Zelena and her sister shared a glance from opposite sides of the bar at the playful tone that even Regina could hear with the den of chatting customers. “Okay. Oh, and Tils…Ti amo.”

With that, Margot stepped out into the swirling snow ending the phone call with an “I’m taking both my breaks.”

“I know we can’t let it before we find a way to protect Henry but how is the curse not broken yet?” Zelena sighed dropping her voice as she sets the tub of dirty cups on the bar top tracking her daughter’s progress down the sidewalk outside the bar’s front window as the snow picks up. “I don’t know but they have to be remembering something for them to be this in love again so quickly.” Regina answers overfilling a few drinks in her distracted state.

*****

“Nice to see you again Miss West.” Weaver greeted having been waiting down in the building’s lobby for her. Even holding the door open to let her into the building for her when he noticed the shopping bag she was carrying.

Margot nodded back kicking the access snow from her boots letting the detective take a few of her bags from her with a grateful smile. “How’s our girl?”

“Resting,” Rumple answered as they headed to the elevator together. “Her ribs are cracked but they hadn’t done any more damage other than make it uncomfortable for her to breath when the tests were finished.” He went on knowing without her saying anything that the other woman wanted to know everything before they got up to the apartment. “Also, the man she was chasing is in custody, so it wasn’t for nothing.” He praised but Rumple saw the flash of annoyance the victory caused the woman Robin Mill’s loves.

“She’s going to hate having to sleep upright for the next few nights.” Margot commented hitting the button for her girlfriend’s floor shifting the bag against her shoulder as the doors slid closed. “Indeed.” Rumple agreed sliding his hands into his jacket pockets readying for the anger he knew was coming.

“Honestly today of all days why would you let her come out into the field with you? Didn’t you check the weather reports?” Margot questioned not wanting to have to be alone with her own thoughts on just how much the day could have gone wrong. Rumple knew the unknowing archer was more upset than she let on despite only meeting her a handful of times back before the curse hit. Alice would spend days talking about the woman now standing beside him in the slow-moving elevator telling the Darke One almost everything she could think of about the archer that had stolen her heart while he was at his spinning wheel or when the blonde had talked him into playing a chess game with her in the times she wasn’t writing to her father or helping him on one of his side projects.

“What can I say. She is her father’s daughter. Not one to back away from a fight no matter what realm she’s in.” Rumple confessed with a proud half smile. “I would think.” He added seeing Margot’s puzzled look once he remembered he was supposed to be talking about Tilly and not Alice at this moment.

“Did she take any other hits after she went down?”

Rumple sighed at the question hating that the elevator chose that moment to slow to a crawl making the journey to Roger’s floor longer. “She didn’t say when Roger’s questioned her, but the suspect did imply he did when we got him cuffed and brought down to the car, but I think that was just to make either Rogers or I to do something that would let him call police brutality on us once we were back at the station.” The detective confessed, “And with the amount of bruising the doctor’s said Tilly had it was all but impossible to tell from looking once we got her to the hospital.”

Margot’s jaw flexed in repressed anger at his words her hand tightening around the strap of Tilly’s backpack were the only signs that the young woman was affected by what he was telling her. She slammed her hand over the already light button for the floor they wanted as if that would make the elevator move faster. “They should call in someone to look at this stupid thing.” She grumbled but before Rumple could answer the doors groaned open on the floor they needed.

“The end of the hall, right?” Margot asked having only been to the apartment one single time before. “Then let’s go already.” She said impatiently at the node from the older man at her side while they stepped out of the elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

The door opened at their approach “I’ll even call Jac to come help if I need to.” Sabine was saying walking backwards out of the apartment they can hear Rogers starting to argue but it doesn’t last long under the glare the curly haired woman on the doorstep gives him making the other two slow to a near stop in the hallway. “We’ll find her lightning bug, but all this stress isn’t helping you heal.” She soothes her tone kinder than the fire in her eyes and Margot catches Weaver’s little hint of a smile at the nickname out of the corner of her eye.

“That’s my girl.” Sabine smiles in praise just before the door closes and she turns to finally catch sight to the pair her phone already at her ear the line humming waiting to connect.

“Tils is going to be alright, Rogers, on the other hand, might be another story.” Sabine explains as soon as the call was picked up sending a warning look their way at Margot’s soft start of a laugh at the possible overstatement. Margot falls silent at the action after a shake of the head from the detective at her side “do you think you and Drew can manage without me a little while longer?” the working woman asked now looking without seeing back at the closed apartment door she’d recently exited “Alright perfect. No, I don’t think Tils would mind letting Luc take her job for the day.”

That sparks a chuckle from Weaver that unlike Margot’s moments earlier bringing a slight smile from the curly-haired woman. “Okay, you seem to have everything taken care of. Thanks a million, Jac.” Sabine says pocketing her phone while the three approached one another.

Now she wasn’t completely distracted with her phone call the look the other woman was giving her made Margot feel that Tilly’s joking comment was right in the fact that in some other time her girlfriend’s boss would make a heck of a good ruler. She has the regal authority look down to a T.

Sabin smirks at the intimidated look Margot sent her way before the younger woman’s eyes dropped as Sabine talks again “Tils keeps trying to call you again. You picked up that last time then the call cut off.” She accused. “She’s been worrying herself into a fit ever since.” Margot noted that even Weaver winced at the ice in her voice.

“Tilly wasn’t the only one fighting the ice problem today. My phone was a casualty in said war.” Margot answers maneuvering her hand into her jeans pocket to pull out her phone showing off the cracked screen.

“That and the elevator was acting up otherwise we would have arrived here sooner.” Rumple says before the cursed royal could do more than cross her arms and open her mouth to speak again. The upset in Sabine’s eyes lessened at the explanation her eyes going from Margot’s guilty look to the shopping bags the two were carrying “need help with those?”

Margot nodded handing over a few of the bags as Sabine led the way back to the apartment.

“Come on how about a game….” Rogers was asking when Rumple opened the door to find his cop partner sitting on the sofa while the supposed to be resting Tilly paced with her phone in her hand and a pillow hugged against her chest. “Don’t feel like it.” The blonde says her eyes trained on the blackened screen of her cell phone both seeming not to notice the new arrivals.

That didn’t last long however at Sabine’s not so subtle coughed to tell the pair they were there.

“Oh, Thank the tides.”

“Targo.”

Three of the four cringed at the vaulting jump Tilly made over the back of the sofa hurling herself into her girlfriend’s arms in a tight hug. “Easy Tils.” Margot says feeling hands fist against the back of her shirt causing Margot to wince at the action. “Seems all the ice in the city if against us today.” Margot joked before the other woman could ask resting a hand over the pillow Tilly was holding against her own stomach when Tilly stated coughing letting Margot guide her back to the couch leaving the others to unpack the ice packs, heating pads and other things from the bags for them.

Rather than answer her in the middle of a coughing fit Tilly opted for writing out what she wanted to say on a dry erase board instead.

‘Hurt bad?’

Margot shook her head at the shakily written words in the light green of the marker rubbing her hand against Tilly’s back as until the last of her coughing stopped. “My backside and lower back might say different for the rest of the afternoon, but I’ll live.” She shrugs off with a light smile at Tilly immediately scooting over so she could rest her head against Margot’s shoulder.

“Besides the obvious how are you my rule breaker?” Margot wondered out loud pressing her lips against the crown of Tilly’s head knowing that if what Rogers said to her on the phone was right Tilly should be in the hospital getting her injuries taken care of not already at home. Despite wanting her girlfriend to heal as quickly as possible so she wouldn’t be hurting longer than needed Margot knows from their talks how much Tilly both hates and fears hospitals. She tapped the board Tilly was still holding when the other blonde cleared her throat to answer. The world traveler remembered from some of her hazier memories how much broken ribs hurt.

Talking, breathing, everything hurts despite how much moving around would help with healing.

‘Better now you’re here. I was worried about you Targo.’

Tilly smiles at Margot’s halfhearted groan at the nickname. “You know only you can get away with calling me that.” She says sliding her hand into Tilly’s resting against her knee. The answering brush of lips against her throat makes Margot start in surprise not expecting the move.

“Thanks.” Tilly says acting like nothing had happened as she takes the ice pack Rogers offers her. Margot blinks coming back to herself with a glance over her shoulder toward the kitchen.

Sabine was hard at work trying to get Weaver to help in preparing lunch for the group. Rogers steps in for him however leaving the older man to stay seated at the table seeming to be looking at everything and nothing at the same time.

Tilly would later blame it on the pain medication but for a half second in meeting his eyes she could have sworn she was looking at a completely different person. One that looked like the man she knew yet his skin seemed to be closer to the scaled skin of a crocodile than a normal human’s his hair longer than she was used to seeing but the impish smirk now spreading across his lips as their eyes met was more fatherly than threatening at least in her opinion.

“Alice.” The Dark One murmurs his voice seeming to carry across the apartment and over the argument her Papa and Tiana are currently having in the kitchen over the proper way to cut up the carrots for lunch with a small tilt of his head in greeting his sly smile still in place.

“Tilly?” her love questioned nudging her shoulder “Baby everything okay?”

Tilly shook her head resting her now pounding head against her girlfriend’s shoulder letting out a low hum in thanks when once again Margot’s fingers wind into her hair massaging her scalp. Not the best way to spend her birthday but at least she has her Nobin with her again.

As if reading her frazzled mind Margot spoke. “Oh, before I forget I got you something.” She says reaching for Tilly’s backpack. “Close your eyes.” She insisted “Please.” she adds with a little pout when Tilly gives her a puzzled look.

“Aawww. That’s so sweet.” Sabine coos obviously reacting to whatever Margot had pulled out of the bag. “Can I…” Rogers starts to say, and Tilly knows from his tone that he’s joking but the harsh three-way growl of ‘No’ from Margot, Weaver, and Sabin makes the closed-eyed blonde smile wider than she had at the teasing tone of her roommate and third best friend.

“Okay.” Margot coaxes along with pressing a soft kiss against Tilly’s forehead. The first thing she thinks on seeing the contents of the container Margot was holding was ‘ _She remembers.’_ Yet what she says is: “But it’s not my birthday.”

“You’re right it's not your birthday its Alice’s.” Margot nodded making that little voice in Tilly’s head preen in happiness “Well at least it’s the published date for her book so it’s kind of like her birthday. But I think she’ll be alright sharing with the other important woman in my life. Besides, you deserve some sweetness today” The bespectacled bartender joked while the other three in the apartment with them go back to staring into space at the kitchen table or working on preparing the rest of the food for their lunch. Giving the couple as much privacy as they can.

“Make a wish.” Margot says while lighting the single blue star candle she’d stuck into the slice of chocolate cake she was holding. Unlike the first time they’d done this all those months ago beside her tower, Tilly chose to act on what she wanted rather than wishing for it to happen. The stinging pain of her injuries be dammed.

Somehow Margot managed to slide the still candlelight cake onto the coffee table without breaking for too long from their kiss. A fact Tilly was only mildly annoyed by until Margot returned to kissing her.

It was only Rogers clearing his throat that made them break apart the second time. “Lunch is ready, and you might want to deal with that candle before the wax destroys a perfectly good chocolate cake Tils.” The cop says making a quick turning back to the kitchen before either woman could turn an annoyed glare his way.

“Time to make a real un birthday birthday wish Tils.” Margot laughs picking the cake container back up and holding it out to the smirking blonde. This time Tilly didn’t drop her eyes from her love’s as she leaned in to blow out the candle.

“So, what’d you wish for?” Margot asks helping Tilly to her feet while the other three finished setting the table for lunch.

“You know that’s not how wishes work.” Sabine answers before Tilly can “If she tells it won’t come true.”

“I don’t know,” Tilly comments swinging her and Margot’s clasped hands between them as they headed over to the table all thoughts of the throbbing pain in her ribs pushed aside as she looks between her girlfriend and Rogers. “I’ve got a good feeling about this one.”


End file.
